Christianity

I’ve left the original post at the end intact, for your interest. It’s a lot of penal substitution atonement and eternal conscious torment, for those who are theologically inclined. That was all I knew at the time, but I’ve been on a bit of a journey since then. People can change, ideas can change, you can deconstruct and reconstruct your faith, and you can still be a Christian if you want.

So now I think:

– That although I can’t prove it to you, Jesus is divine. He’s God, or the Son of God, however you prefer to phrase it.

– And in his death and resurrection, he accomplished something very important. (When I can articulate that more specifically, I will. I’m not a theology student, so exploring takes time. Watch this space!)

– I hope everyone gets to be with God in the end. Eternal conscious torment isn’t the only position about hell that the church has held over the centuries. More exploration in progress.

– I don’t think the Bible is inerrant. That doesn’t mean I think it’s untrue. I think it holds profound truth. But I don’t think it should be taken entirely literally, nor do I think it’s 100% free of mistakes.

– I think some of the doctrines a lot of us have grown up with, like PSA, ECT, and literal readings of Revelation have been very harmful in some cases, and hampered our efforts to follow Jesus and contribute meaningfully to the lives of those around us.

– Complementarianism, similarly, has been hugely harmful in many cases, to both women and men, and I am no longer prepared to subscribe to it.

– I am concerned about the mental health of LGBTQI+ people who are in the church. The church of late (particularly the evangelical church) has not been kind or welcoming, and hasn’t yet come to recognize that (in my opinion, anyway. There are exceptions).

I am learning it’s important to be honest about our messiness. We are all messy and broken. So this is an attempt to be a little more clear about where I stand. I have few answers, and I could be wrong about everything I’ve just said. But I’m okay with that. I don’t need to be 100% certain. I trust God will work it all out and I don’t need to be 100% right about everything for him to accept me or guide me.

It’s okay to deconstruct.

Here’s my old post:

This is what I believe as a Christian:

That God loves us very much

That while people are usually “good” (at least by our standards – most of us aren’t hardened criminals), we aren’t morally perfect – and God is. We all fall short, either by doing something wrong or not doing something we should.

God is just and will judge all wrong – including us if we’ve done wrong (and who hasn’t?)

But God also loves us very much and pursues us relentlessly.

Jesus (God and man) died to take on our judgment and exchange his perfection for our failings – then rose from the dead, demonstrating that God accepted His death as payment for our wrong.

Forgiveness is freely available because of what He’s done.

We can accept it and have a relationship with God that goes on forever. Or we can reject it and refuse a relationship with God forever.

So, what do you choose?

I realise that not everyone who visits My Two Companions is a Christian or even has a belief system at all – and you are welcome here! I want this to be a safe place to discuss questions of faith as well as mental health. As long as comments are respectful towards others, you are more than welcome to post questions or comments about faith, God, the Bible or any related spiritual stuff.

For more information about what it means to be Christian, have a look at this page at Got Questions.org, or feel free to ask!

Update: I still want this blog to be an open, inclusive, safe place for discussion. But you don’t need to bother with Got Questions unless you want fairly evangelical type answers.